Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/59

 and coffee, as well as some other infusions, are used, as you see, but in great moderation."

It was growing dark when we rose from table. A mere turn to a handle, and the apartment was illuminated by a flood of soft electric light, affording light for the task now before us. All set to work, each taking an allotted part in setting things to rights. One remained to sweep the table-cloth and clear the floor from crumbs. The rest of us descended to an apartment beneath the dining-room, to which the cebin descended. Every thing was removed from the compartments of that apparatus, and was either washed or dusted: all, in fine, was put in readiness for the morning meal, except, of course, the dishes to come from the culinary depot. All employing themselves deftly and intelligently, every thing was in order in about twenty minutes.

I, as a matter of course, could not stand idly by when all were so busy. But my attempts at assistance were so clumsy as to call forth, on one occasion, a merry peal of laughter from Ialma, who must have thought my home-training somewhat deficient. Seeing me take it in good part,—her laugh, indeed, was irresistibly contagious—we all laughed; and the work went on merrily. Ialma and I were thenceforth very good friends.

This short interlude over, to my mind much more enjoyable than the corresponding period after our dinners, we betook ourselves to the parlor, without heaviness, and without anxiety in regard to digestion.

In the parlor prevailed the same general style of ornament and furnishing as in the apartments already described, the same simple elegance, the same harmony of